Brace



(No Model.)

D. H. RICE.

BRAGE, SHAFT, 630., FOR VELOGIPEDES. No. 331,331. Patented Dec. 1, 1335 Wfim33333 \wm 31km.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

DAVID HALL RICE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BRACE, SHAFT, 860.,

FOR VELOCIPEDES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 331,331 dated December 1, 1885.

Application filed October 19, 1885. Serial No. 180,291. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that l, DAVID HALL RICE, of Boston, (Brookline,) in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Braces and Shafts for Bicycles, Tricycles, and other similar uses, of which the following is a specification.

My improvement relates to braces and shafts used in bicycles and tricycles and other similar places where great lightness, rigidity, and strength are required; and it consists in constructing and forming such shafts substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a transverse section of a portion of a solid brace or shaft constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central section of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section of a portion of a hollow brace or shaft constructed according to my invention. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same.

It has been heretofore found that in the construction of the frames and shafting of bicycles and tricycles great advantage results from the employment of hollow drawn tubing, preferably of steel, instead of solid rods, as while the strength of the brace or shaft is somewhat reduced the weight is reduced in a vastly greater proportion. Such hollow steel tubes, however, when the shell is drawn down below a certain thickness, while strong enough to perform the work required, become deficient in stiffness, the ductility which enables them to be drawn being too great, and when they begin to bend the strain of the load is too great for the strength of the metal, although in its original position it was ample. Even when such steel tubes are drawn only to a thickness which is considered safe some of them being more ductile than others bend and become useless in the machine, thus causing great expense in refitting and replacing them.

My invention is intended to remedy this evil; and it consists,'essentially, in the discovery that sulphur can be combined with the metallic shell of a tubular brace or shaft in a molten state in the form of a core, so as to adhere to the metal and become substantially a unit therewith, and that this core, while possessing great rigidity, is elastic within certain limits, which allows it to spring with the shell of the brace or shaft, so as not to be separated therefrom under sudden shocks or blows. This sulphur core is also extremely light, being nearly one-fourth of the weight of steel of the same cubical quantity. It is found, for instance, that a metal tube drawn down to the thickness of about one sixty-fourth of one inch and provided with a sulphur-core as specified will resist more than ten times the weight before bending that the same tube willwithout the core, and that it can be repeatedly sprung and return to its original position without sensibly impairing its rigidity.

A represents the shell of a metal tube designed for a shaft or brace in a bicycle or tricycle. B is the sulphur core. This core is formed by melting the ordinary stick sulphur or brimstone of commerce and pouring it in a molten state into the tube, having one end stopped up, and allowing it to cool and set in place, the inside of the tube being first cleaned to remove all grease, dirt, and extraneous matter. The cooling of the tube and core will set their abutting surfaces so firmly together that the core cannot be forced out of a tube of any considerable length with any ordinary amount of force.

In Figs. 3 and 4 is represented a hollow brace or shaft formed with a sulphur core of the outside shell, A. In this construction I provide an internal metallic tube, 0, of proper size to leave an annular space between it and the outer shell, A. Into this space I pour the molten sulphur as before, and when cool it will be found to have so firmly united the outer and inner metallic shells that they can be turned, bored, or worked in a lathe without being separated by the strain.

If it is desired to vary the hardness or elasticity of the sulphur core, it may be done by melting with it before pouring into the tube a small amount of colophony or some similar resin-say three ounces to the pound of sulphur; but any greater or smaller proportion can be used, as desired.

What I claim as new and of my invention 1s-- 1. As a new article of manufacture, the bar or shaft formed of an exterior tubular metallic shell and an internal core or filling of sulphur metallic shell, A, and an internal'core or fill- IO united together by heat, substantially as deing composed of sulphur and eolophony, all scribed. united together by heat, substantially as de- 2. The combination of the external tubular l scribed.

5 metallic shell, A, the core or filling of sulphur B, and the internal tubular shell, C, united DAVID HALL RICE by heat and forming a shaft or brace, substan- Witnesses: tially as described. WILLIAM P. BLAKE,

3. The combination of the outer tubular N. P. OOKINGTON. 

